Lorca’s play about the cruel beauty of passing time, written in 1935.
Set in 1900 Granada, Spain.
Doña Rosita rehearsing in Lubbock, Texas. Left to right: Esperanza Gonzales, Fernando Ramirez, Malāna Wilson, Anna Ruth Aaron-DeSpain.
Below: Lorca and his sister Isabella in 1914, when Federico was 16.
From a letter written when Lorca was 18:
Ahead I see many problems. many eyes which will imprison me, many difficulties in the battle between heart and head, and my emotional flowering wants to take possession of its sunlit garden and I make an effort to enjoy playing with the paper dolls and toys of my childhood, and sometimes I lie on my back on the floor and play comadricas with my baby sister (I adore her) . . . but the phantom that lives within us and which hates us pushes me forward. And we have to carry on because it’s our lot to grow old and die, but I don’t want to listen but, nevertheless, with each day that passes I have another doubt and another sadness.
[comadricas is a game of imitating the neighbors’ gossip]
